Complex mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical systems including engine systems, electronic control systems, and other devices are mass-produced and in widespread use. Even though manufacturers generally make continuous improvements in reliability and durability of such systems, tendencies toward failures or degraded system performance over time cannot be totally eliminated. Therefore, system monitoring and diagnostic testing are often used to detect operational anomalies and their causes.
Diagnostic/monitoring functions have been used both within systems themselves and at special testing centers. In automobile systems, for example, a combination of on-board diagnostics and service center diagnostics are utilized to identify a problem and isolate its cause in order to guide repair or service procedures in an economical manner. On-board diagnostic systems, however, are limited in scope and capability by cost and hardware constraints. Diagnostics at a service center, on the other hand, are less constrained by cost or space but they require a vehicle be brought to a service center facility before either a fault can be identified or corrective actions (e.g., obtaining replacement parts) can be initiated.
One method of providing remote monitoring and diagnostics is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,151 (the '151 patent) issued to Marko et al. The '151 patent describes a diagnostic system that monitors performance of a vehicle and its operational components. A data collection memory in the vehicle stores samples of diagnostic readings in a rolling buffer. An analyzer in the vehicle is responsive to the diagnostic readings and detects a trigger event indicative of an abnormal operating state of an operational component. A computation center located remotely from the vehicle has a database storing representations of diagnostic readings for classifying nominal and abnormal operating states of the operational components. A transmitter is activated by the trigger event to transmit at least some of the stored samples in the rolling buffer at the time of the trigger event to the computation center. The computation center receives the transmitted samples and classifies them according to the nominal or irregular operating states.
Although the system of the '151 patent may provide a remote monitoring and diagnosis for a vehicle, the disclosed system does not facilitate providing repair or service assistance based on the diagnostic information. The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.